


ugly flower

by cloudtalking



Series: an offer you couldn’t refuse [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Friends to Lovers to Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Multi, Strong Women, inner sakura is there but sakura has coping mechanisms, ino is regina george but a mob heir, ino isn’t gr8 at first but she gets better, memes tho i don’t write fics w/out em sry, sakura glo up challenge, sakura learns to be a badass from v badass ladies, shikamaru is gay mafia yoda, sng is endgame but it may take a bit, watches sakura grow up but it starts in hs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-15 04:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17522150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudtalking/pseuds/cloudtalking
Summary: “we’ll take the world by storm,” ino says, and they do. ino doesn’t notice her mistake until it’s too late.ino might grow into a storm, into whipping winds and thunderclouds, but sakura grows into a hurricane. sakura is going to eat her alive.





	1. first snow of winter

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy yooo this is the second part in my mob au where i dump my worldbuilding and write abt lesbianism. tags will be added as needed lmao y’all have fun

Sakura’s best friend is Ino Yamanaka and with that comes things that she’s not entirely prepared for. They met at a private school Sakura worked her ass off to get a scholarship to in the third grade, and while everyone else mocked her for being lower class or just plain ugly, Ino looked at her and saw _something._ Sakura’s just not sure if it was her potential or the way the girl in her head was screaming to cut out their tongues.

Ino grabs Sakura’s arm on the first day of school, dragging her into the cafeteria and down onto the bench of her table, kicking out some heiress or another in favor of a girl she has every reason to ridicule. Sakura looks up at Ino and sees a savior, a queen, and feels with everything in her the need to bow. Ino grabs her hand like only close friends ever do and holds her as she stands, holds her to her level, makes her an equal. Sakura promises herself to be worthy of it.

(There’s a phase where Sakura relays her mother’s advice to find a rich boy to take care of her and Ino sets them both on the path to Sasuke Uchiha, the most popular boy in their grade. It gets tense when they realize joint marriages like the one they had been planning aren’t technically legal, but after a few cursory fights they realize Sasuke isn’t that great of a person overall.)

By the sixth grade they’re more than that, more than equals, more than friends. Ino gives Sakura a lecture on sexuality and lets her make her own decisions, and Sakura does some vaguely embarrassing research to reach the conclusion that kissing Ino would be far more pleasant than kissing Sasuke, and Ino could probably set her up for the next three lifetimes anyway. She mumbles some of this out to Ino, nerves radiating out from her chest and making her curl in on herself. Ino wraps her arms around her, kisses her forehead, and they’re practically married from then on.

What’s problematic is when Ino decides to introduce Sakura to the business she’s planning on marrying her into, and she proposes it as Sakura having less than zero involvement. Unfortunately, things don’t quite work out that way.

It starts with Ino inviting her to one of their family parties during the summer of their freshman year, huge and lavish in a way that befits the house that Ino grew up in and that Sakura has never felt quite comfortable in. She’s at Ino’s side as she talks to the Nara and Akimichi heirs, as she networks through the two families, as she takes Sakura into the more secluded area of the gardens and starts explaining what roles the Families play.

There’s the Nara, who are full of Family lawyers and politicians, in it for the long con. Nearly everyone not in their employ owes them a favor or two, and they know when and where to pull them in. A Nara, Ino tells her, could shoot a man point blank in front of a million people and not suffer any consequences for it, but they’re too lazy to get their hands dirty on their own.

“That’s where,” Ino says, eying the biggest man Sakura has ever seen in her life, not just heavy but tall and obviously muscled,“the Akimichi come in.”

The Akimichi own all of the most prolific restaurants in the city, buying them once they reach their standards and paying the staff more to keep it up. For the most part, the businesses are still allowed to run themselves, but they make several Akimichi hires and tend to only purchase Akimichi meats. Butchery, as it turns out, is the Akimichi tradition.

Instead of the endless mind games and strategy the Nara employ, the Akimichi kill their hits in their shops and five-star restaurants, and wait for the Yamanaka to retrieve them.

Ino’s family makes their clean money in many avenues of Konoha’s economics, Ino’s favorites being fashion and the collection of beautiful things such as flowers (especially sakuras, she teases, which only serves to make Sakura match the color of her namesake) and art. They also have a reputation for their mental-health professionals, several Yamanaka being trailblazers in their fields.

The most significant of their investments, though, is sanitation. It’s this that allows them to be so prolific at body-disposal, though even more often it’s just transportation of the knocked-out victims of the Akimichi and Nara Families to a place where the Yamanaka can pry information out of them and make them regret being born.

“Is this okay?” Ino asks. “That this is the family you want to be a part of? That this is how we make our money?”

Sakura nods, clearly surprising Ino with her sincerity. The voice in her head scoffs, _as if_ she’d be so much of a pussy as to shy away. “Of course, I’m with you ‘til the end.”

Ino smiles none-too kindly and kisses Sakura on the cheek. “We’ll take the world by storm.”

They do.

 

That night, Chōji and Shikamaru sleep over, not an uncommon thing for Ino, but a little less than comfortable for Sakura. However, Shikamaru is a dork and Chōji is probably the only tolerable boy Sakura has ever met, so it gets easier. 

“Ino’s bringing you in, huh?” Shikamaru asks, calculating in a way that really doesn’t befit a fourteen year-old.

Sakura shrugs. “Is that bad?”

“For you, maybe,” he snorts. “You’re a civilian, you don’t know the risks of this kind of life.”

“Then teach me, asshole.” Sakura rolls her eyes, and they’re both more than surprised when he does.

Sakura gets coached on mafia politics by Shikamaru long after Ino and Chōji decide it’s too boring and fall asleep, and she studies them with the same single-minded fierceness that she does everything else.

Shikamaru laughs at her, which pisses her off more than she lets on. “You’ll certainly be a good mob wife, if anything. Try not to take any notes though.”

She’s this close to asking why, and when Shikamaru laughs again she knows he knows it. The embarrassment makes her almost homicidal, but she bottles it up like she does everything else, ignoring the voice in her head yelling _kill him, hit him, hurt him, make him_ see _._

Ino’s parents meet Sakura as Ino’s girlfriend a week or so after, with Sakura already neck-deep into Shikamaru’s brief but informative lessons. Inoichi smiles knowingly but sympathetically, as if he’s already seeing an end to this.

The girl in Sakura’s head wants to punch it off his face so bad Sakura can feel the urge in her own fist, but she very quietly does nothing about it.

“It’s a bit early for you to assume this is going to be forever,” Inoichi says, ever the reasonable one. Shikamaru told her that a Yamanaka can talk their way through a war zone, and as much as she didn’t need the warning it’s frustrating how true it is here.

“She’s it for me,” Ino insists, but Inoichi shakes his head. 

“You’re both young, you start high school in a few weeks. Give it a break and come back in a year, then you can convince me.” 

Sakura jumps out of her seat, the girl in her head becoming the girl in control, but Ino is already agreeing, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back down.

Sakura goes home holding in tears, waiting for the moment that she can throw herself into her bed and muffle her cries into the mattress. She knows she loves Ino, loves her wholly and utterly, and all she gets for it is some half-assed reasoning and a “maybe he’s right, Sakura.” 

Ino texts her lyrical apologies that she doesn’t dare buy into, deleting the hearts from Ino’s name in her contacts. She opens her text log with Shikamaru instead, anger moving her fingers.

 

**cherry: apparently i’m not gonna be a yamanaka trophy wife after all**

**_tired: O shyt_ **

 

It’s a mess to explain, especially since she knows Ino is probably pleading her case to him as she types. At the very least she can trust Shikamaru to play both sides until she crashes from the rage and goes to Chōji.

 

**_tired: That's fucking shit_ **

**cherry: fucking yeah it is**

**_tired: Idk man I’m not allowed to Not take Ino’s side but this is fucked_ **

**cherry: ik ik. can u still teach me?**

**_tired: Ye dude_ **

 

She puts down her phone and lets it sit, going to bed without the tell-tale buzz of Ino’s goodnight texts. Freshman year is going to fucking suck.


	2. seedling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sakura’s first day of freshman year. it’s almost a disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhh no real warnings except for maybe sakura angsting over her ex?? no hate for ino but if someone doesn’t check her she’s a real bitch and sakura didn’t have a backbone yet 
> 
> also!! i have like 7000 words written up already i just want to space out updates a bit

Sakura shows up to the first day of school ready to focus on her studies and let Ino fuck herself to hell, only to find out that hell has found Sakura instead.

“I’m assigning you your lab partners for the year,” Hatake, their chem teacher who showed up to his first day on the job in his sweats, drones. Sakura is about ready to snap her brand new textbook in two.

“Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto,” he reads, paper covering half his face. “You’ll be in the front row.”

“Oh, fuck,” she hears the blonde boy curse, and as she moves her books to the designated area she’s narrowly avoiding doing the same. Sasuke is fine when she’s not taking to him, because for all that he’s admittedly attractive he’s the biggest asshole ever (that’s probably the reason, actually, pretty people have it too easy). That in itself might be a problem, but Sasuke is smart, and together they are guaranteed to beat out the rest of the class.

Uzumaki, however, is fresh meat, having just transferred into their school for baby aristocrats. Though she’s never met him before, Sakura knows enough about him through his reputation alone to know this year isn’t going to be easy.

She hears Hatake call Ino’s lab and can’t help but feel a weight sink deep in her chest. Once again, Ino scored the InoShikaCho arrangement that’s 20% luck and 100% favoritism and has been a recurring theme apparently since birth.

 

Ino had explained it once, Sakura’s head resting on her shoulder. “Really, our families are just one Family, just led by three people. We always raise an InoShikaCho triad together to lead the next generation. Even our conceptions were planned, which is disturbing to think about.”

“Yeah,” Sakura had agreed. “Can you imagine anyone doing all that planning and still getting a dud like Shikamaru? Terrifying.”

Ino retold the joke the next day as if it was hers, and Sakura laughed sincerely enough to back it up, just glad to be of use to her.

Sakura has been a pushover for Ino for years and she was fine with it. Ino was her everything, after all, but now she doesn’t have anything. She’s not planning on being a placemat for anyone else.

 

“I’m an idiot in the rest of my classes,” Uzumaki says, a disclaimer that’s made obvious by the disorganized state of his binders even in the first fucking period of their first day, “but my parents were chemists,  so I’m probably like, an expert in here. We’ve got this in the bag.”

“Didn’t your parents die right after you were born?” Sasuke asks, because of course he has to go there. “I don’t think you really picked up all that much from them.”

“Fuck off,” Uzumaki says, flipping him off without fear of the teacher practically right behind them. To be fair, Hatake looks to be the type of teacher that would rather die than actively intervene in any of the affairs of his students, which is as convenient as it is annoying. “It’s in my blood man, trust me.”

Sakura stops reigning herself in. “This is a fucking mess,” she groans. “How’d you even get into this school?”

Uzumaki winces, but keeps his grin. “Uh, my uncle took me in and paid for me to go here, so yeah.”

“Just don’t blow anything up,” Sasuke says, jinxing them to their doom.

 

Gym, which is second period in place of lab on A days, actually seems like fun.

“Hey, I’m Tenten,” a pretty girl with buns smiles at her. “You’re the only freshman in here who hasn’t pissed me off yet, so wanna be friends?”

Sakura’s relieved beyond measure to be saved from the masses. “Yes please.”

Through Tenten, Sakura meets Lee (also hot) and Neji (hot again, in a men-get-pegged way, but very emo).

“This is my favorite class!” Lee says with all the enthusiasm of someone who actually means it. “Gai is the best teacher in the whole school! We are so lucky to have him!”

Sakura forgets what civilians are like sometimes. She doesn’t remember them being this weird.

Neji huffs and blows his bangs out of his face, revealing a tattoo that Shikamaru made sure Sakura could recognize; Hyuuga branch family, a questionably crooked cop or spy in the making.

Civilians are probably still normal, these are just a bit more than the regular kind of crazy she’s used to in mobsters.

 

Somehow, Sakura gets to lunch without issue, but that in itself should’ve been a warning. All of Sakura’s friends were Ino’s friends first, and their priorities match the chronology. Perhaps foolishly, she doesn’t expect a problem until she walks into the cafeteria and realizes how hopelessly alone she is.

“Sakura!” Uzumaki screams, loud even in the clamor of the lunchroom. “C’mon! Sit with us!”

Sakura sighs, but follows instructions, pointedly not looking over to Ino’s table and the masses of spoiled girls that follow her around.

Us turns out to be Kiba— class idiot since day one, though his service dog is cute and she’s glad to be sharing a table with Akamaru at least— Shikamaru, and Chōji. Sakura arches a brow as she sits her ass down on the bench. “What? You’re not banned from talking to me in public?”

“We weren’t the ones to ask you over,” Shikamaru points out. “We’re absolved of all guilt.”

“Guilt? About what?” Uzumaki asks, though when he’s ignored he thankfully doesn’t follow up, going back to arguing with Kiba.

“Besides, she’s not gonna tell us not to talk to you,” Chōji says seriously. “She’s worried about you, man.”

“Well it doesn’t look like it from this angle,” Sakura huffs. Her inner self rioting at the understatement; It looks like she’s been lying to us, it looks like we’ve been played for fucking fools.

“Uncle Inoichi said you two had to break for now, but he didn’t say you two couldn’t still talk?” Chōji tries. “Maybe if you two stopped avoiding each other you could—“

She cuts him off. “I’m not going to sit next to her and watch her pretend like we never dated. I’m not that pathetic.”

Shikamaru winces. “Damn, Haruno. Go easy on him, will ya?”

Chōji bites his lip. “I just wish this never happened.”

“Me too,” Sakura says, honestly. “But it did, so.”

They lapse into tense silence, but as Sakura is quick to learn, quiet is never long unbroken around either Kiba or Uzumaki.

“Listen yo, my granny could totally kick your mom’s ass, no offense.”

“No offense?” Kiba rolls his eyes. “Fucking yeah offense, and also lies. My mom’s the biggest badass in Konoha.”

“Oh? Prove it then!” Uzumaki challenges, smiling but with eyes on fire. Sakura wants to assume he’s kidding, but if he and Kiba have as much in common as she thinks they do it’s a lost cause.

“The fuck?” Kiba responds, bewildered.

“I’ll call up Gran, let her know it’s on sight.”

Kiba gets over his brief rational reaction and grins just as bloody. “It’s on, asshole! That old woman won’t know what hit her.”

“You’re setting up a fight between your..” Shikamaru pauses to assess the situation. “Matriarchs?”

Uzumaki nods vigorously. “Senju Tsunade kicks ass.”

That makes Shikamaru pause, and Sakura racks her brain for anything he’s told her about the Senju. Extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, and extremely dead. The Shodaime was a Senju, and the Nidaime after him, the only consecutive Hokages that were both from the same family and uncontested in their position. They established the agreement that created their position, delegating the responsibility of keeping peace between Families to whoever said Families hated the least. Since the Senju weren’t active anymore, all Shikamaru had to teach her was ancient history, but if Uzumaki’s grandmother really is a Senju then Sakura might have to study on her own.

“You already know about my mom,” Kiba rolls his eyes. “Tell him she kicks twice as much ass, break it to him gently.”

Inuzuka Tsume does kick major ass, and Sakura would probably die to be able to talk to her. The Inuzuka since their founding have been been matriarchal, but only in recent years did they truly ally themselves with the rest of Konoha. They were one of the only Families to resist the Hokage agreement, which lead to an end to the nonstop warfare between the Families. To quote Shikamaru, “They had spent so long out from under the thumb of man, to give up that freedom would be nothing short of suicide for their traditions.”

Because the Inuzuka lost all their allies in their refusal to sign the agreement, they had to rush to find new ones. Namely, the Aburame and the Hyuuga, the former being underground even for the mafia, and the latter being some of the most straight-laced mob cops and politicians there ever was, not including the immense number of spies the Family keeps on hand. The three Families became just as strong in their alliance as the rest of Konoha combined, the Inuzuka being the brute force behind their strength.

(Inuzuka dogs are trained to kill, even Kiba’s service dog is as dangerous as any gun. Kiba has never had problems with their classmates trying to pet Akamaru, at least.)

Tsume is only truly as impressive as she is because of her part in the recent war with Iwa, in which her people and their hounds managed to murder the five main rock Families in their sleep. On top of that, Tsume was also the one to start the movement in her alliance to join up with the rest of Konoha after befriending the Hokage’s wife. In a quote Shikamaru had some trouble repeating, “If he’s man enough to bottom, he’s man enough to treat women with respect.”

 

“All women are queens,” Sakura says, headache already forming.

“If she breathes—“

“Chōji, no.” Sakura holds her palm out vertically to stop him before using the same hand to gesture to Shikamaru. “Continue.”

Shikamaru sighs through his nose, resting his chin on his hand; “She’s a thot.”

 

The rest of the day is generally without consequence, save for having to see Ino in almost all of her core classes. Sakura’s the smarter of the two, as well as the more applied in her studies, but Ino can glide on nineties without studying at all. Ino doesn’t spare her so much as a glance, and Sakura wants with all her night to listen to the girl in her head for once.

_ Make her pay. _

English is the last period of the day, and unfortunately one of the ones she shares with her  _ ex _ . Doubly as unfortunate is Uzumaki’s arrival to the class.

“Hey Iruka, am I in the wrong room?” he asks their teacher. “‘Cause I’m pretty sure I’m not smart enough to be in the same English as Sakura.”

Sakura is almost touched, except for the fact that she definitely agrees with him. 

“It’s Umino at school, Naruto, and yes you’re here.” Umino’s smile isn’t the type that Sakura is used to seeing on teachers, the ones that are fake and right around the edges. Umino smiles like he means it, and Sakura is more than ready to learn from him. “Getting on your meds helped you a lot last year, and Miss Shirosaki recommended you personally.”

“Well, shit.”

“Naruto, language!”

Uzumaki holds his hands up in defense, but it’s clear he’s smiling wise behind them. “Hey, it’s English, isn’t it?” 

Watching the scene unfold before her, Sakura resolves to return a favor. “Hey, Uzumaki!” she pats the seat next to her and lets her actions speak for themselves.

Uzumaki’s eyes get bright, and the next moment he’s sitting down. “Thanks, Sakura! You can call me Naruto, you know!”

“Naruto, then,” she agrees, and doesn’t look at Ino at all. 

“Hey Sasuke! I saved you a seat!” Ino calls as he walks through the door. So much for that.

Sasuke scans the room for any other possible option, seemingly finding that the only two are behind Naruto and next to Ino, and spends a full minute deliberating.

In the end, he grunts his “Hn™️” that marks him as an Uchiha, and ignores Ino completely. It tastes like victory, even though it means Sakura will have to listen to him being an asshole for the rest of the year. It’s worth it, probably.

“Hey, Sasuke, did anything happen to your face? Or is it just naturally stuck like that?” 

“Shut the fuck up, idiot.”

Maybe. That’s probably the most she’s heard Sasuke talk since grade school when he told her he didn’t want to do a joint marriage, which could really swing her luck to either side of the pendulum at this point. 

Really though, if the first day is indicative of anything, freshman year might not be that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kiba is an irresponsible diabetic who doesn’t keep track of his blood sugar as well as he should and used to pass out at random. tsume trained akumaru to be both a guard dog and a service dog and compared to the rest of the inuzuka dogs he’s a big wuss which is fine for kiba. 
> 
> hope y’all liked it!!


	3. roots take hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sauce and nart are better friends than usual, and sakura makes a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw mentions of murder??? implied trauma and violence towards a woman in labor (kushina giving birth to nart)??? nothing that’s super coherent. jokes abt how hot sasuke’s mom is bc they’re in hs and it happens. also sasuke is that rich soccer boy that goes on vacations in europe that u hate

It doesn’t take more than a week for Naruto to blow up the chem lab.

“In my defense,” Naruto argues, “Hatake knew my mom, so that should’ve been enough warning not to let me near the bunsen burners.”

“I also knew your mother,” vice principal Anko says, zero sympathy in her smile. “She made this incident look like a campfire, do better next time. Also, all three of you have detention for the next month.”

Sakura feels her panic in her bloodstream. “Wait, but my scholarship—“

“Just show up to them and I’ll let it slide without actually putting it on your record, okay? I can’t blame you for having an Uzumaki in your lab, now shoo, I have a date with the nurse.”

“Shizune?” Naruto looks vaguely impressed. He holds his hand out in a fist. “About time, give it here.”

They walk out of her office in companionable silence, having all been accomplices in Naruto’s misbehavior and thus bonded together through the bonds of Uzumaki-flavored delayed shock.

Sakura breaks their uncharacteristic quiet. “How the fuck did you manage to blow up the lab with a faulty burner? It didn’t even turn on.”

“Well, you see,” Naruto starts, pushing the tips of his fingers together. “I have no idea. I’m an Uzumaki, this shit just kind of happens.”

Sasuke, for his part, only gives them a single Hn™️. “This is why my dad said not to be friends with you.”

“Fucking everyone’s parents said not to be friends with me. That’s so preschool dude. Does your mom still pick out your clothes in the morning?”

“I swear to god if you two start fighting right now,” Sakura starts.

“You’ll what?” Sasuke prods. “I know you’re close with Yamanaka and all, but you’re still a fucking civilian. I could say you spilled water on me and they’d find you floating in a ditch the week after.”

“If they find my body at all then your people are more shit than anyone gives them credit for,” Sakura says before the can think better of it. “And Ino and I broke up, so yeah.”

Naruto perks up. “Broke up like, Breakup? Or like—“

“Breakup. We were together. Her dad said no. She didn’t fight it.” It’s easier to explain it to people who are very nearly strangers than it is to people she’s known for years. Somehow they take it better.

“She’s a bitch anyway,” Sasuke says without missing a beat.

“And an idiot! You’re definitely worth fighting for, Sakura!” Naruto grins, flashing her both thumbs up.

“Yeah,” Sakura agrees, smiling despite herself. “Fuck her, man.”

 

Sasuke joins them at their lunch table, citing the Hn™️ and only speaking up when he feels the need to insult any of them, but it’s a comfort all the same. Sakura’s world expands from Ino and Ino’s friends to friends of her own, and while Ino is surrounding herself with snakes that won’t hesitate to turn their backs on her, Sakura is running with wolves.

Her wolves are also disasters.

“I forgot my fucking meds,” Naruto says, panicking as he rummages through his bag. “Holy shit this is the worst, fuck.”

“Meds?” She tilts her head.

“Adderall. I’m not gonna be able to remember anything we’re taught today.”

“I’ll take extra notes for you in the classes we have together, and I can tutor you in the others if you want.”

Naruto stops his search and beams at her. “Really?”

“Yeah, Sauce can come too, I know he’s never going to do his essay unless we make him.”

“Hn,” Sasuke protests.

“Oh, you’re perfectly capable, but since you two have started playing smashbros together I can’t trust you’ll actually do it.”

“We’re tied like, fifty to fifty Sakura, we need to decide who can smash the best,” Naruto whines.

“Don’t say it like that, shithead,” Sasuke says, mildly revolted. So would Sakura be, if she wasn’t also aware that revolting was what Naruto had been going for.

”It’s pronounced _shi_ - _theed_ —“

“You can find out after your work is done. Tonight? My place is open, but my neighbors are kinda loud.”

Naruto nods. “Yeah, me too, my apartment’s kinda small for that kinda thing.”

“Hn,” Sasuke says, too much like a considering hum to earn the Uchiha trademark.

“What?” Naruto asks, head whipping around.

“My house is big enough, and I have enough controllers for us to all play,” Sasuke elaborates. “We’ll do it there.”

Resistance is futile, and Sakura really wants to see the place that Sasuke grew up in to make him so entitled.

She realizes the reality of it some point after she sees the house and realizes that it’s a house. “Holy fuck,” she breathes, horrified. “The property taxes.”

Naruto, a fellow pleb that took the train on the seat next to her, is similarly affected. “Burn the rich.”

Sasuke takes that as his cue to open up his eighty-pound door and glare at them. “Are you coming in or just eyefucking my house? Mom wants to know so she can get started on dinner.”

“I think I’ll eyefuck your house for a bit longer, actually, if she wouldn’t mind,” Sakura quips, and laughter she doesn’t recognize resounds from behind Sasuke.

“I wouldn’t mind that much at all,” Uchiha Mikoto jokes, and newspaper photos really don’t do her justice. “But it might be a bit more pleasant from the inside.”

She’s right about that, Sakura can’t even begin to take it all in until the three of them are safely behind the door of Sasuke’s room.

“Sauce,” Sakura says with the most serious tone she can muster. “Your mom is hot as fuck, and I see where your pretty boy genes come from now.”

“Yeah, and we know your dad looked like an old man at twenty, so don’t even try it!” Naruto adds. “She really saved your ass in that department.”

“Don’t call my mom hot ever again,” Sasuke demands, but it’s close enough to a plea that she’ll entertain it. “Can we do the essay now?”

The Uchiha date back to the founding of Konoha back when it was less of a city and more of a village. The Uchiha and Senju had been at war so long that no one remembered who started it, but pride was enough of a genetic flaw that neither Family would call a ceasefire. The war steadily got worse, killing children just the same as adults, people previously off-limits becoming fair game. Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama took control of their Families and forced them to make peace as part of the Hokage agreement they were drafting, an agreement to make the mafia more moral if nothing else, and since then the Uchiha have been some of the richest and most influential citizens of Konoha.

“How does your Family make your money, again?” Sakura asks, even though she’s sure she knows.

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “We control the police force, the other Families have to pay us off to get anything done. That’s the more legitimate stuff.”

The Hyuuga would probably say that they controlled the police force too, but that was neither here nor there. Uchiha police were much more reasonable besides.

“Boring,” Naruto groans, lifting his head from Sakura’s notes. “Kurama says Uchiha police are the closest to law-abiding citizens the mob has.”

“That’s because they’re good at doing what we tell them to and not getting caught,” Sasuke shoots back. “And who the fuck is Kurama?”

Naruto’s eyes widen. “Oh yeah! He told me not to tell people, but like fuck that shit I guess. He’s my uncle, you’d probably know him as Kyūbi.

“The hitman?” Sakura presses. “I thought he was killed by the Yondaime?”

“As if,” Naruto scoffs. “He did lose an arm though.”

“So is he still a hitman?”

“Yeah, but he mostly just rides my ass about work and shit. He killed my mom when she was giving birth to me, so he’s a little fucked up about it.”

Sasuke and Sakura exchange glances in the solidarity of just taking Naruto at his word. Naruto can say that his father is a dragon and they’ll take it in stride, simply accepting that they’ve made friends with a cryptid. The laws of reality just don’t seem to apply to him, and they don’t bother trying to glue them back on.

“Who would hire _you_?” Sasuke asks instead, which is at the same time an insult and a genuine question.

Naruto sticks his tongue out before remembering he has to put it back before answering. “I’m freelance, asshole. You know how it is.” Sasuke nods like he does, vaguely somber and equally vaguely impressed.

“Freelance?” Sakura can feel ice in her bones, not quite fear but decidedly unpleasant. “Freelance what?”

The boys both look at her as if she’s stupid, which she barely tolerates on Shikamaru and burns every time she remembers it on Ino. “Hitman, duh.”

It’s hard to imagine Naruto with blood on his hands, collecting cash for heads. It’s hard to imagine him as anyone but the boy she knows; stupid and kind in equal measure. But then again, Ino’s been raised into the same life, and Sasuke already knows how to shoot a gun. Naruto’s the same, just less sheltered, and Sakura’s the most sheltered of all of them.

Sasuke leaves the safety of his room to grab snacks from the kitchen, and Sakura’s alone with a murderer.

“Can you teach me?” She asks, feeling all at once hopeful and damned.

He moves closer, shoulder to shoulder where they’re sitting on the floor against Sasuke’s bed. “Teach you what?”

She’s surprised to find that she doesn’t quite know. “I don’t want to be—“ she starts, then stops. That’s not quite it, Sakura wants a lot of things, this is something she needs. “I can’t be just a mob-savvy civilian. I’m going to make Ino see me as a person and not just something she can throw away and come back to whenever she feels like.”

“And you’re gonna do that by what? Killing people?” Naruto shakes his head. “I can’t teach you to do that, man. That’s not the kind of training you can give to a friend.”

Sakura brushes off whatever dark feelings start clouding up her thoughts when she imagines the kind of training that could make Naruto sound afraid. “Well then, refer me to someone who can. You said your granny is a badass, right? Maybe she can teach me something.”

“I—“ he starts, but they can hear Sasuke’s footsteps on the stairs warning them to hurry up. “I’ll talk to you more tomorrow, okay?”

  
She pouts, but keeps her mouth shut. _tomorrow_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> assfghb uh ye she’s tryna get that mob shit Down and nart has been at this game for a bit. also idk what consecutive updates are i post when i want


	4. stagnant growth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meet the uchiha family. sasuke would rather they not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mostly filler but uhhh exposition at the end thas nice. not any real warnings but warnings for sakura not feeling so comfy w Strange Dude Alert, they say the word weed like twice, sasuke comes from a police fam, thas it I think.
> 
> i have the next chap written up completely and it’s Full of shit but uhhh she’s a slow boi so we’ll uhhh see when that’s up if i can’t edit the pacing

Sasuke brings them down to the dining room, at once more homey than she expects and more extravagant than she feels comfortable existing in. It’s something she felt humbled by in Ino’s house. No, she didn’t deserve to be there, but Ino hollowed out a place for her all the same. Shikamaru made fun of her for it, words she’d paid no heed to because Ino’s protection allowed her the luxury of not listening. Now, she remembers what he said, steels herself, sets her shoulders back, and tilts her head up without daring to look down.

Naruto walks into the room first, in a way that’s both undistinguished and a statement. Hands on the pockets of his sweats, relaxed but powerful just the same. Sasuke walks in line it’s his house, which points out the useless dramatics Sakura’s indulging in. Sometimes you just walk into a room.

“Sasuke, introduce your friends,” Mikoto says from her seat at the table, and miraculously Sasuke actually listens.

“Naruto, Sakura.” He points to the both of them in time with his words. “They’re my lab partners in chem, and we’re all in English together too.”

“Oh?” A man with an impressive bun and a likeness to Sasuke that can only mean they’re brothers leans forward as Mikoto gestures for them to sit down. “How are you all doing in your classes?”

Sasuke takes the seat next to his mother, putting Sakura herself next to his brother and Naruto next to Sasuke. Fugaku, who Sakura has seen countless times in the paper but never in the flesh, sits at the head of the table. His countenance is very close to being unpleasant, vaguely disappointed in his surroundings, though that might just be his face.

“Chem’s pretty lit, I’m not so strong with the other subjects though,” Naruto says, and Sasuke’s father looks even more disappointed if not at all surprised. It’s a fairly ugly look on him, though it’s probably just because he himself is fairly ugly.

“I’m top of the class as far as grades go, but Sasuke’s close,” she doesn’t hesitate to brag. “We all contribute pretty equally in lab, though.” The jury’s still out on whether Naruto knows how to write, but he does pretty much all of the practical, so Sakura and Sasuke alternate on writing the reports for him.

“That’s great, honey.” Mikoto smiles sweetly. Really, Sasuke’s mom is the ideal lady, and she’s probably the only reason that anyone who even vaguely likes men loves Sasuke. “Though, really Itachi, I thought I raised you to introduce yourself before asking any questions?”

“Pardon,” Itachi copies Mikoto’s smile, only half as sincere. “I assumed Sasuke would have told you about me enough beforehand.”

“Nope,” Naruto says with every inch of subtlety he possesses. “He did say you were a genius though, and none of the teachers can shut up about it— Hatake and Iruka are alright though.”

“Hatake?” Itachi frowns. “He’s a professor now?”

Sasuke nods. “He teaches chemistry. I thought you knew?”

Itachi gives his head a minute shake. “Kakashi is a very secretive man, I’m not surprised he’d go as far as to hide his new career path.”

“I’m more surprised anyone gave him a tracing license at all, let alone that Ibiki signed off on it.” Fugaku says. “How is he in class?”

At once, the three of them respond: “Lazy.”

The elder Uchiha all nod. “Sounds like him,” Mikoto sighs. “He’s always been an interesting kid, more so now that he’s an adult.”

“Interesting is one word for it,” Fugaku huffs, and Mikoto sends him a quick glare.

“All that besides, I didn’t make all this food for nothing,” Mikoto elbows her son lightly. “Eat your fill, I’ll pack up the leftovers so you have something to take home.”

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, hearts in his eyes. “Your mom is awesome.” Sakura strongly agrees.

Halfway through, Sasuke’s cousin shows up to harass Itachi, who flares at said cousin the same way Sakura sometimes glares at Naruto. 

“Shisui,” Mikoto sounds tired. “Would you like to let us know when you’re coming, next time?”

“Sure, Auntie M!” Shisui grins. Sakura will bet real money he’s already forgotten what was asked of him.

Shisui puts a hand on the backs of both both her and Itachi’s chairs, which is just this side of uncomfortable. “So Sasuke has friends now? Since when?”

“They’re not friends,” Sasuke is quick to say. “We’re just studying.”

“Is that what they call it these days?” Shisui says, eyebrow raised. “I don’t know, these two a pretty cute.”

Now it’s very uncomfortable. “We’re friends, we were studying. Sasuke is just emotionally constipated. That’s it.”

“Ouch,” Shisui pulls away from Sakura’s chair like it burned him. “That’s rough. I guess there really is no help for little Sassy, is there?”

“Shisui, you have ten seconds,” Itachi warns, polite and tense as a knifepoint.

“That’s my cue! Bye, Auntie M! Sasuke’s friends!” Shisui waves as he exits through the sliding glass doors of the kitchen, Itachi following quick behind him.

 

Later, it’s all Sakura and Naruto can do just to grab their leftovers, thank Mikoto, and be forcibly thrown out of the house by Sasuke.

“He really was being a bit too nice lately,” Naruto opines, Tupperware clutched close to his chest from where he landed on his ass, two feet from the stairs leading up to the door. “He probably had an allergic reaction or something.”

“Do you think he’s got an epipen for that?” Sakura muses, getting up from her similar position on the perfectly-cut grass to the right of him. “Like, do you think his doctor had to break the news to Mikoto that her son is allergic to friends?”

Naruto snorts, adopting a stuffy rich-person voice Sakura recognizes from their classmates, namely Sasuke and Neji. “We’re sorry Mrs. Uchiha, but your son has chronic stick-up-his-ass disorder. There is no cure.”

“Nah.” Sakura shakes her head. “Miss Uchiha.”

“Miss?”

“Sasuke’s mom is too hot for Fugaku.”

“Yeah, but the joke is getting weird at this point.”

“Fuck, you’re right,” she agrees, which is rare enough that Naruto laughs harder than he probably should.

“Anyway, you’ll talk to me about the mob stuff tomorrow?” Sakura asks, and Naruto groans.

“Saku, you’re my best friend, but this is still the chief of police’s house we’re talking in front of.”

Sakura tries to process that.  _ Saku, you’re my best friend.  _ She’s known him for maybe a week or so, but Naruto’s already given her that privilege. It reminds her of when Ino decided she was worth something, when Sakura decided to put Ino on a pedestal fit for a queen, except the tables are turned this time around. Naruto already loves Sakura like a friend, and knowing Naruto for this long is enough to know that if she wanted to she could manipulate him to the ends of the earth. 

Ino would’ve done it. Sakura will make sure Naruto gets friend in return and not just someone to follow.

Someone opens up a front window. “Leave, you fucking idiots.” The window closes. Guess who.

“I’ll get back to you tomorrow in detention,” Naruto says once they both finish laughing, finally rising to stand and revealing the grass-stains on his ass. 

“I thought you didn’t want Sasuke to hear?” He certainly shut up fast when Sasuke was drawing near to the room.

“That’s only because we were still in his father’s house. Fugaku’s a mob cop, but he’s still a cop.  I don’t know if Sasuke even knows what weed looks like, let alone the gritty shit people who aren’t Family backed have to do. At least Asuma’s the one supervising detention this week. He doesn’t really do anything to stop anyone from fucking around.”

Sakura didn’t know what weed looked like until the eighth grade when she took health class. The odds aren’t so great for Sasuke. “Well, see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah,” Naruto agrees, grinning wildly as he always does. He ignores the open gateway on his way out, jumping the fence instead.

Sakura’s used to the type of mob kids that live like royalty. They’re born for a purpose which they’re raised to fulfill, and have all the money to help them even if they’re jack shit at it. 

Naruto is not this type of mafia. Naruto the type of mafia that builds their own families from scratch and tastes blood in their mouths more often than food. He’s famous for being a thief, famous for robbing people for food and money and precious items, even getting paid to do so. He’s made from stronger stuff than Sakura, a lower-middle class scholarship student, can ever be.

If Sakura wants to defy those odds, she’ll have to become mafia like him instead of any of the people she’s grown up with. She’ll have to kill with her hands instead of hired ones, bleed on her own instead of sending men out to die for her. She’s looking forward to it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope y’all liked it!!! also im working on a “make hinata a multifaceted individual” oneshot if y’all wanna read that too. lemme kno!!

**Author's Note:**

> @greneyes u kno where


End file.
